Study In The History Of Sanscrit Poetics

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SUSHI L KUMAR DE u. a Tarr. ,

JiEAlT&R, A)' THE UfjfVERSITV UF [JAIl'ClA

]N TWO VOLUMES

VOL, U

] jUZAO Jt CO,

4*r Great Russell StresL London. w. r.

rama varma r.zyr". KICTITUTE.

JRICHUR. COCHIN STATE.

HISTOKY OF SANSKRIT POETICS

Primed by Mr. Nalin Chandra Taul *.*.
at the Calcutta Oriental Pnaa. 107. Mechuabaiar St.. Calcutta

All rights rt served by the author
Iridian price Rs. 8/- ; foreign price I os. 6d.

RAMA VARMA RKEA*!?!! INSTITUTE.

TRICHUR. COCHIN STATE.

STUDIES

IN THE

HISTORY OF SANSKRIT POETICS

SUSHIL KUMAR DE M. a., n. Urr.,

HEADER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF l>ACCA

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. II

1925

LUZAC A CO.

Russell Street, London w. C.

VOLUME U

SYSTEMS AND THEORIES

RAMA VARMA HEjEA"?! IXTITUTE.

JRICHUR. COCHIN STATE.

TO

Dr. L. D. Barnett

PREFACE

Circumstances beyond my control have somewhat
delayed the publication of this volume. Apart from
the delay due to my roraoteness from the place
of printing, I could devote to it such time as could
be spared from more regular duties ; but in tho
interest of the work itself, I should have been glad
if the delay had been longer and given me an
opportunity of making it fuller in somo j»arts than
it actually ia.

An attempt was made in the firit volume to
settle a working Chronology and indicate the original
Sources of Sanskrit Poetics ; tho present volume
is concerned with the more difficult task of tracing
the development of the Systems and Thoories. While
I oould not ignore the content in investigating
the growth of the discipline, I thought it moro
useful to lay stress on the essentials of the doctrines
and omit minor details, my object having boon
more historical than expository. I could not, for
instance, give in this volume a technical analysis
of individual rhetorical "figures", with which the
Alamkftra-sftstra is traditionally and popularly
associated ; but I have dealt with the general doctrine
of poetic figures, in so far as they are not mere
tickets of nomenclature , but positive agents in the
production of stylistic beauty or aesthetic pleasure.
The study ot analytical rhetoric, apart from its
value os a for mal discipline, may be regarded as

( a )

pedantic and futile, but Sanskrit Alarpk5ra-&istra
possesses a speculative interest by involving, besides
mere Rhetoric, a great deal of what is known as
Criticism, Aesthetics or Poetics ; for it was almost
impossible for the Alarpkarikas, concerned as they
were with form and technique, not to busy them-
selves with the general phenomena of literature
or theorise on general principles. My omission,
again, of all consideration of such peculiar develop-
ment of the rasa-theory as we find in Vai^pava
devotional works may be criticised, but my concern
hero is not with bhakti-rn* but with Hlaiflk&rika
rata, although I have refurred in passing to this
erotico-religious application of the theory in ROpa
Gosvainin’s Ujjvnla-nUamani.

For a similar reaaon of historical and general
troatment, greater emphasis has been laid on the
earlier writers who cover the more creative poriods
of tho discipline ; of later writers, who show in
the main an oxccssive dependence on their prede-
cessor*, only typical names have l>eon selected with
a duo rogard to their historical as well as intrinsic
importance. It is hoped, however, that no

important writer or his work has been overlooked.
The dramatic theories, the omission of which
has already been explained in the preface to
the first volume, form an allied but. indeed a totally
distinct subject, which is reserved for a more
detailed treatment, if possible on a future occasion,
than what could have been practicable within the
limited scope of this work. In spite of these and
other limitations, I venture to think that I have

been able to make out a case for (if not actually
write) a history of Sanskrit Poetics, and apply, how-
ever tentatively, the historical method to an im-
portant but comparatively neglected branch of
Sanskrit speculative literature.

I take this opportunity of thanking critics and
reviewers who have accorded a generous welcome
to the first volume, as well aa make renewed acknow-
legraenta to those scholars who have made helpful
suggestions, among whom my special thanks are
due to Prof. Jacobi, Dr. Barnett and Prof. Sovani.
Some minor errors and misstatements in tho first
volume — inevitable where there are so many

dotails— aro corrected, and some uew materials added,
at tho end of this volume.

Littlo did I expect when 1 had the privilege
of associating the first volume of this modest work,
on ita dedication-page, with the name of Sir Asutosh
Mookerjee, who took a personal interest in it from
the beginning, that he would not live to see its
completion. I cannot make an aiequato acknow-
ledgment of all that I owe to him, nor nood I
dwell hero on tho roll of his public services, so
untimely closed ; but I recall with gratitude ami
affection tho debt which I, with many other students
of this and past generations in Bengal, owe to this
departed friend and patron of higher education and
resenrch in this country.

University of Dacca

December 15, 11»24.

}

S. K. De

CONTENTS

1. From the Beginning* to Bh&maha ... 1

II. Bh&maha, ITdbhata and Rudrat* ... 41

III. Dm>din and V&inana ... ... 95

IV. Lollata and Other* ... ... 135

V. The Dhvanik&rn and Anandavardhnna... 175

VI. Abhinnvagupta and the Reactionary

Syatema ... ... ... 224

VII. Maiumata and the Now School ... 268

VIII. Later Writer* on Rasa ... ... 325

IX. Writers on Kavi *ik$4 ... ... 356

Addition* and Correction* to Vol. I ... 376

Addition* and Correction* to Vol. II •••* 386

Indox .. ... ... 387

ABBREVIATIONS

(in addition to those used in Vol. I)

UAL - Kane'* HUtory of Alaipkira Literature, prefixed
to his ed. of Sihitya-darpana, and. ed. Horn bay, 1923.
GIL - Winternitz*s Geschichte der indischcn Litcratur, Vol.
iii, Leipzig 1922.

BSOSm Bulletin of the School of Oiienul Studies, London.

I. FROM TF1E BEGINNINGS TO BHAMAHA

O)

Of the unknown beginnings of Poetics an
ii discipline, our enquiry in the preceding volume 1
has indicated that we can only roako a few surmises,
by implication, from the oldest surviving works
on the subject, frofn stray references in general
literature, from the elaboration of similar ideas in other
disciplines, and froth the folly developed klioya- style
whioh would warrant the pre-existence of some
doctrines of Poetics regulating its art ami usage.

Apart from such sqrmisoe, the sixtoenth chapter
of Bharata's N& tya-tiUlra gives us for tho first time
an outline of Poetics which is probably oarlier in
du balance, if not in date, than the earliest existing
Idvya. In this chapter, one meets with a developed
dogma, if not a theory, of Poetics which onumoratos
four poetic figures ( alarjikirat ), ten oxcellonoes
(yuiftu), ton defects (do***), and thirty-six character-
istics {(akfanru) of poetic composition. These
apparently constituted the principal contents of the
discipline as it existed at a very early period, which
may be taken, in the absence of othor data, as the
first known period in the history of Sanskrit Poetics.

f See Vol I pp. i-2J